Electronic displays have previously been used predominantly in indoor entertainment applications such as home theatres and bars/restaurants. However, as the performance characteristics and popularity have grown, electronic displays are now being used in many new environments for both entertainment as well as informational and advertising purposes. Displays are now used in airports, shopping malls, sides of buildings, arenas/stadiums, menu boards, and as advertising signs and/or billboards. Some displays are also used for both indoor and outdoor environments.
Over many hours of use, even the most reliable electronic displays are know to degrade in performance or possibly have one or more components fail prematurely. When a display is used for advertising purposes, a sudden failure or degradation in performance can result in the loss of critical advertising exposure and a possible loss of revenue to the advertising firm. Further, when a display is used for information, a failure of the display may result in the loss of critical information such as flight schedules or emergency alerts. Also, in some applications a display may be required to maintain a certain level of performance (ex. gamma saturation, contrast, luminance, color saturation, etc.). A user may want to monitor the various parameters of the display to determine when the display may begin to degrade in performance. In some applications, many displays may be mounted in a particular location. For example, some airports or transit stations may contains hundreds of displays. It may be desirable for a user to have the ability to monitor the performance characteristics of one or more displays from a remote location.
Establishing a means for communication between the user and one or more electronic displays may permit remote updating of software used to drive the display. As the display's hardware designs evolve, more features and software updates may also be developed. Some displays which are already in operation may accept software updates depending on the hardware revisions that are installed in the present display. There is a need to diagnose the particular hardware components installed within an electronic display so that potential software updates can be installed if there is compatibility between the hardware and software. The ability to remotely determine the hardware revisions is also desirable so that performance issues with the display may be diagnosed and potentially resolved remotely.